Musharraf urges US to give some time to Swat peace deal to work

Rawalpindi , May 28 (ANI): Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly urged the United States to give some time to the recent peace deal, inked between the NWFP government and the pro-Taliban leaders, to work.

He also urged Washington to understand the ground realities in Pakistan .

Musharraf said this during his meeting with two US Congressional delegations led by Senator Ben Nelson and Congressman Adam Schiff at his Camp Office in Rawalpindi .

The President also said that Pakistan considered US Congress support for the broadening of mutual ties very important.

The President underlined the importance of Congressional support for counter-terrorism initiatives of the government, namely the FATA Development Plan, capacity building of the Frontier Corps (FC) and establishment of the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (RoZs), the Daily Times quoted a Foreign Office spokesman as saying.

He said that during his meeting with the US parliamentarians, Musharraf also underlined Pakistan s contribution to international counter-terrorism efforts and stressed on the importance of the governments strategy that covered political, military and socio-economic dimensions.

On the occasion, the visiting delegates applauded Pakistan s commitment to combating extremism, and reaffirmed their support for Pakistan s counter-terrorism efforts and social development goals.

The US delegations also met the countrys Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, and the latter told them that no system was better suited to combat terrorism than democracy.

He asked the US to support the democratically elected governments efforts to stabilise its economy and improve the populations living standards. The world community has to develop a collective approach to arrest the trend of terrorism and extremism by addressing its root causes, Gilani said and stressed on the need for enhanced intelligence sharing between the two countries. (ANI)